Humans are disrupting natural “salt cycle” on a global scale

Production of selected salts in Mt/year for (a) the world and (b) the United States. Graphic: Graphic: Kaushal, et al., 2023 / Nature Reviews Earth and Environment

July 28, 2024

Humans are disrupting natural “salt cycle” on a global scale

31 October 2023 (University of Maryland) – The influx of salt in streams and rivers is an ‘existential threat,’ according to a research team led by a UMD geologist. The planet’s demand for salt comes at a cost to the environment and human health, according to a new scientific review led by University of Maryland Geology Professor Sujay Kaushal. Published […]

Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion Netherlands protest against ING on a highway in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 30 December 2023 in this picture obtained from social media. Photo: Extinction Rebellion Netherlands / REUTERS

December 31, 2023

Climate activists block Amsterdam highway in protest against ING

By Bart Meijer 31 December 2023 AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Around 300 climate activists were held by police in Amsterdam on Saturday for blocking a major highway in the Dutch capital for several hours to demand an immediate end to the financing of fossil fuel projects by the country’s largest bank, ING (INGA.AS). Hundreds of activists […]

Change Over Time in (a) US Life Expectancy and (b) US Life Expectancy Gap and Rank Relative to Populous Countries (Population>500000), 1950-2021. Phase 1=1950–1954; phase 2=1955–1973; phase 3=1974–1982; phase 4=1983–2009; phase 5=2010–2019; phase 6=2020–2021. Bars plot the difference in life expectancy between the United States and the populous country (population >500000) with the highest life expectancy in the given year. The country with the highest life expectancy was Norway in 1950–1962 and 1976–1977, Sweden in 1963 and 1965–1975, the Netherlands in 1964, Japan in 1978–2007, Macao in 2008–2010, and Japan in 2011–2021. The line graph plots US rank relative to other populous countries, with higher rank denoting lower US life expectancy. Source: Author’s calculations based on UN data. Graphic: Steven H. Woolf MD, MPH, 2023 / AJPH

June 3, 2023

U.S. has been falling behind on life expectancy for decades – Between 1933 and 2021, 56 countries achieved higher life expectancy than U.S. – “Americans are sicker and die earlier than people in dozens of countries”

By Olivia Trani 1 June 2023 (VCU) – When it comes to public health, the United States is at a disadvantage compared with other developed countries. Americans experience more illness, have less access to health care and pay more for health services than citizens in other high-income countries. Americans also die earlier – and have been doing so […]

State of press freedom worldwide 2013-2023. Changes in 180 countries and territories evaluated by RSF since 2013. In 2023, the situation was “very serious” in 31 countries, “difficult” in 42, “problematic” in 55, and “good” or “satisfactory” in 52 countries. In other words, the environment for journalism was “bad” in seven out of ten countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten. Graphic: RSF

May 9, 2023

2023 World Press Freedom Index – Journalism threatened by fake content industry – The environment for journalism is “bad” in seven out of ten countries, satisfactory in only three out of ten

3 May 2023 (RSF) – According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index – which evaluates the environment for journalism in 180 countries and territories and is published on World Press Freedom Day (3 May) – the situation is “very serious” in 31 countries, “difficult” in 42, “problematic” in 55, and “good” or “satisfactory” in 52 countries. In […]

Avoidable deaths per 100,000 population (standardized rates) in OECD nations, 2000-2020. Avoidable deaths per 100,000 population in the U.S. are higher than the OECD average. Graphic: The Commonwealth Fund

January 31, 2023

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating spending, worsening outcomes – “Americans are more likely to die younger, and from avoidable causes, than residents of peer countries”

By Munira Z. Gunja, Evan D. Gumas, and Reginald D. Williams II 31 January 2023 (The Commonwealth Fund) – In the previous edition of U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, we reported that people in the United States experience the worst health outcomes overall of any high-income nation.1 Americans are more likely to die younger, and […]

Yearly change in life expectancy in the U.S. and 30 other countries, 1901-2022. Data: Schöley, et al., 2022. Graphic: Fortune

January 10, 2023

The first global decline in life expectancy since World War II poses a major threat to the economy

By Matthew Heimer and Nicolas Rapp6 December 2022 (Fortune) – COVID’s devastation shows up starkly in life expectancy data: The pandemic’s peak marked the first time since World War II that LE (as demographers call it) declined across the globe. The graphic above is based on a data set that focuses mostly on Europe, but similar […]

Surface temperatures anomalies in Europe, 31 December 2022 - 2 January 2023. Temperatures are in degrees Celsius. On New Year’s Day, at least seven countries saw their warmest January weather on record as temperatures surged to springtime levels: Latvia hit 52 degrees (11.1 Celsius); Denmark 54.7 degrees (12.6 Celsius); Lithuania 58.3 degrees (14.6 Celsius); Belarus 61.5 degrees (16.4 Celsius); the Netherlands 62.4 degrees (16.9 Celsius); Poland 66.2 degrees (19.0 Celsius); and the Czech Republic 67.3 degrees (19.6 Celsius). Graphic: Weatherbell.com

January 2, 2023

Thousands of records shattered in historic winter warm spell in Europe – At least seven countries saw warmest January weather on record on New Year’s Day – “It’s the most extreme event ever seen in European climatology. Nothing stands close to this.”

By Ian Livingston 2 January 2023 (The Washington Post) – As 2022 turned to 2023, an exceptionally strong wintertime heat dome pounced on much of Europe, producing unprecedented warmth for January. As temperatures soared 18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 Celsius) above normal from France to western Russia, thousands of records were broken […]

Police monitor a protest opposing COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, in Montreal, on Wednesday, 7 December 2022. Photo: Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press

December 10, 2022

Monbiot: The US is a rogue state leading the world toward ecological collapse – “It’s a cliff edge”

By George Monbiot 9 December 2022 (The Guardian) – There are two extraordinary facts about the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a […]

The area of forest fires recorded in 2022 for 11 European countries and the Mediterranean basin, compared with the average from 2006 to 2021. Data are current to 21 July 2022. Data: European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Graphic: Le Monde

July 21, 2022

Wildfires in Europe have never been as large as in the summer of 2022 – In France and Spain, summer fires are nearly six times larger than average

By Pierre Breteau 21 July 2022 (Le Monde) – From Gironde to Brittany, France is burning as drought and exceptional heat rage. The entire European Union (EU) is also suffering from extreme weather conditions. And most of the EU 27 Member States have already suffered from fires that have destroyed areas of forest that are far greater […]

Pipes at the landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, 8 March 2022. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke / REUTERS

June 26, 2022

Europe may shift back to coal as Russia turns down gas flows – “If we don’t do it, then we run the risk that the storage facilities will not be full enough at the end of the year toward the winter season. And then we are blackmailable on a political level.”

By Vera Eckert and Francesca Landini 20 June 2022 FRANKFURT/MILAN (Reuters) – Europe’s biggest Russian gas buyers raced to find alternative fuel supplies on Monday and could burn more coal to cope with reduced gas flows from Russia that threaten an energy crisis in winter if stores are not refilled. Germany, Italy, Austria and the […]

Desdemona Despair

Category: Netherlands